Jury Rejects Late Barber’s Cancer Claim

The tobacco industry is not liable for the cancer that killed a barber, despite his claims that the disease was caused by decades of secondhand smoke from his customers, a jury ruled Wednesday.

The jury deliberated about two hours before rejecting the $650-million damage lawsuit first filed by Burl Butler of Laurel, Miss., and continued by his family after his death. The jury voted 11 to 1 in favor of the tobacco companies; nine votes were required for a verdict.

Lawyers said Butler’s case was the first of its kind to reach a jury. A class-action lawsuit brought by thousands of Florida flight attendants, who claimed that working on smoky airplanes made them sick, was settled mid-trial for $349 million in 1998.

Lawyers for the Butler family argued that it was secondhand smoke that the barber breathed for 30 years that caused his cancer and death in 1994 at age 60.

Tobacco industry lawyers argued that Butler had a family history of cancer and that he had also been exposed to asbestos in talcum power and methylene chloride in hair spray used in his shop.

Jeff Furr, an attorney for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., said it is difficult for doctors to determine how individuals develop cancer, particularly in cases where there are several lifestyle risk factors.

T. Roe Frazer, the Butler family attorney, said he was disappointed by the verdict, “but I still believe we are right and environmental smoke is deadly. It’s just sad that this jury didn’t feel like it needed to make that statement.”

Ava Dean Butler, the barber’s 62-year-old widow, said her husband hoped to make a contribution to society with his lawsuit.

“It has been very hard, but my mission has not changed,” she said. “This has been a public awareness campaign from the beginning.”

Other defendants were Philip Morris Tobacco Co., Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., Lorillard, Liggett Group and the former American Tobacco Co.